Written by: Dave Cantrell

I could not have imagined the level of joy I would ultimately – and continuously – experience when I stumbled into the opportunity to write for Stereo Embers some – egad! – fifteen years ago. Over those years, the volume and variety of shiver-inducing music, the songcraft, the nigh on brash confidence behind it, has seldom failed to floor me. In fact, it’s made me feel blessed which is not a word this atheist turns to very often but my god if there’s a God its name is music (and the arts in general, of course, but especially music) and among its many messengers arriving pretty much on the daily we bring you Hexxes, whose debut single, released last Friday the 13th (rather ‘of course’ we’d add), just bloody floored us here at the SEM office. Whereas most projects, as is understandably expected, tend to emerge along something of a learner’s curve, this lot just blows that presumption clean out of the proverbial water and arrives with, well, a bit of a sensational splash if you will.

A recently formed Portland OR-based trio consisting pseudonymously of Agatha, Alastair and Scarlett Hexx (bass/drums percussion/programming; guitar; lyrics/vox respectively), under the production nous of Kiisu Dsalyss from fellow Portland band The Secret Light, has presented us with a calling card that thunders with an immediacy that is (in a manner of speaking) off the charts. For the proverbial geezer that this writer is, a track like this strikes like some sort of rejuvenating tonic poured with glee and power straight into my thalamus, drenching the senses as it does in a none-more-adroit mix of audio muscle that in turn manages to bring an adept grace and presence the likes of which we hear far too seldom around here. It is, in fact, that very mix of qualities that ensures that here is a track that so stands the test of time we’ll no doubt be returning to any time we need a note of reassurance as to the health of the modern music scene, which is no small task. Is it a bit dark? Of bloody course it is, but it’s also exuberant in its way and it’s that deft mix of the shadowy with the uplifting that ensures it an enduring place in our hearts, and is in fact exactly the kind of release that also helps ensure that, for another day at least, any incremental shriveling of said hearts shall be forestalled, for which, truly, we are grateful almost beyond measure. Beyond that, all we can say is…bring us more, Hexxes, bring us more!!